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Show 62 MR. O. THOMAS ON THE [Jan. 5, form to Hemprich and Ehrenberg's H. habessinicus has been frequently questioned, and, as will be seen below in the remarks to that species (p. 66), I have come to the conclusion that it cannot be supported. The species therefore requires the new name given it by Giglioli, if it is considered to be distinct from P. capensis, to which it is most certainly allied. However, although its skull cannot be with certainty distinguished from that of the Cape animal, yet its longer softer fur, its more olivaceous colour, its much larger dorsal spot, and its great difference in locality induce me to consider it as requiring specific distinction. The Genoa Museum possesses a large series of this handsome animal, obtained at many different localities in Shoa by Messrs. An-tinori, Beccari, and Ragazzi, while there are in the British Museum the two typical specimens, besides several skulls, collected by Capt. Harris at Ankober. In addition I refer to this species the two specimens from the Dalanta plateau spoken of as " Hyrax sp. nov." by Mr. Blanford 1, this locality being the most northern recorded for the present species, and yet considerably south of any place at which he obtained H. abyssinica (his H. brucei)2. 3. PROCAVIA SYRIACA. Hyrax syriacus, Schreb. Saug. iv. pi. ccxl. B (1784), p. 923 (1792). Hyrax sinaiticus3, Gray, Ann. Mag. N . H . (4) i. p. 45 (1868). Size medium or rather small. Mammae 1-2=6. Fur long;, rather soft and shaggy, not so smooth as in the other species. General colour a sort of dull orange-yellow or fawn, not so sandy as P. ruficeps. Belly yellow or brownish yellow, but very variable in tone. Dorsal spot large and clearly marked, yellow, the hairs yellow throughout, to their extreme tips and bases ; the yellow paler basally and darker terminally. Skull4 broad and strongly made, rather narrower, however, in the S. Arabian subspecies. Interparietal sutures persistent. Diastema about 9 mm., very slightly longer in the southern specimens. Molar teeth variable in size. Ribs 20 (in one young specimen and also in that figured by De Blainville). Hab. Syria, Palestine, the Sinaitic Peninsula, and the whole of Arabia. This species was first described by Bruce in 1790 5, but as he confounded the Abyssinian and Palestine Hyraces, the name syriaca, based on his description, has been rejected by some authors on the ground that his " Ashkoko " is the Abyssinian species and not the Palestine one. It is, however, quite clear that his main description 1 Zool. Abyss, p. 257. 2 L. c. p. 252. 3 See footnote 1 to P. ruficeps, p. 64. 4 Good figures : D e Blainville, Ost6ogr. iii. Hyrax, pis. i. & ii • Bruce, Travels, v. p. 139. |
